‘Being professional’: RE teachers’ understandings of professionalism 1997–2014

Abstract

The article draws on a series of qualitative studies undertaken between 1997 and 2014 in order to contribute to knowledge of, and debate about, Religious Education(RE) and professionalism from the perspective of teachers of RE. The findings of research undertaken with successive cohorts of English trainee and newly qualified teachers is used to explore their understandings and experiences of, and concerns about ‘being professional’. An international perspective is provided by research on experienced teachers of RE in six European countries, conducted during the REDCo Project of 2006–2009. Contextualisation of research findings in relation to education policies and debates provides a picture of the issues that teachers and teacher educators were responding between 1997 and 2014 and indicates how past and current understandings of RE and professionalism can come together in the practice and views of RE teachers. The article highlights the need for teachers to reflect on the relationship between their personal and professional lives and argues that trainee teachers require the kind of opportunities for reflection and specialist support that are provided in institutions of higher education.

Keywords:

• professionalism
• teachers of Religious Education
• personal and professional lives
• teachers’ lives
• life history research